


America: We'll Do It Live

by logogram



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Road Trips, Travel, boys being ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-07 23:21:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1917885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logogram/pseuds/logogram
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boys get up to hijinks on their summer road trip, and Harry and Louis work things out. Niall gets a full body brain freeze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	America: We'll Do It Live

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pixies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixies/gifts).



> For the H/L Summer Fest! 
> 
> The prompt: Roadtrip fic! They're college students on summer break and H/L and the boys decide to take a trip across the United States. Not picky about the details or any side pairings amongst the other boys, just want all 5 of them getting up to shenanigans across the States while they go see the sights, and H/L canoodling in the backseat when it's neither of their turns to drive, etc

Louis’ phone has been buzzing for ten minutes and even though he’s groped twice over the bed, he can’t find the thing to make it _stop_. It’s barely light out- a disgusting time of the morning- so it can only be Liam who’s trying to reach him. He’s on the verge of giving up and just letting it continue, vibrations be damned, when it stops. Louis has never been so grateful for silence, and he snuggles back into the hollow in his mattress, tugging the covers over his head.

“Tommo, I swear to God! This trip was your idea, and I’m _not_ going to drag you out of bed, we’ll just cancel it.” Liam sounds disgustingly awake for this time of the morning, and Louis’ first reaction is to shove a pillow over his own head and press down, do anything to drown out the noise so that he can get back to sleep.

“Let me try,” he hears, before feeling his covers flip back and someone sliding in behind him. He snuggles backward, chasing the warmth, and feels Harry’s arms slide around him and squeeze. Harry’s hugs are just so cozy and Louis knows that he’ll make someone such a good boyfriend one day, and he wonders if Harry will cook him some breakfast, as that would absolutely be worth getting up for. This is so lovely, he thinks- Harry nosing through his hair and gently rubbing his back, and maybe he’ll get breakfast out of it- when the covers are ripped off them and the full blast of air-conditioning hits Louis. 

“Liam, dude, what the fuck?” Louis scans the room for his boxers- where had he tossed them last night when he stumbled back from the bar?- and spots them in a corner across the bedroom. He crosses the room for them, looks up when he’s gotten them on to see Liam looking exasperated and Harry blushing and looking the other direction. He knows that Harry is fairly un-athletic, hasn’t spent much time in locker rooms, but it still amazes Louis that someone so comfortable with his own nudity can be so skittish about someone else’s.

Still, the blush on Harry’s cheeks is endearing, and he’s giving Louis an ever-so-slight smile, and Louis is just charmed. He’s so charmed, in fact, that he’s missed half of what Liam’s been saying, coming into the conversation just as Liam’s asking, “And have you packed yet?” Packed? What is Louis packing for? It’s far too early in the day for Liam to be making travel plans.

When Louis shrugs at him, Liam’s look of exasperation flashes into one of disbelief. “Do you remember what you’re packing for?” Louis shrugs again, and Liam’s mouth opens and closes several times. 

“We’re going on a road trip? The one you’ve been talking about for months? We were going to leave before it was light?” Oh. That road trip. Louis had taken off work at the restaurant for two months, had opted to take a heavier load of courses in the fall, rather than taking his typical summer course, so that he and his friends could take the epic cross-country road trip that they’d been talking about since they were freshman. He’d been bugging them about it for ages, and he’d finally worn them down, and now he’d forgotten.

“Is it June 15th already?” Louis asks weakly, and Liam glares at him. It seems that now isn’t the time for questions, and Louis should probably start getting ready. 

Harry smiles at him. “I’ll help Lou get ready while you get Zayn up,” he tells Liam. 

Liam shrugs and heads for the door, as Harry’s statement hits Louis. “Wait. Wait! Zayn’s not awake yet either? Why are you yelling at me then?”

“At least Zayn packed before the day of the trip, you dumbass!” Liam calls over his shoulder before disappearing out the door and across the hall to Zayn’s bedroom.

Louis looks over at Harry, who smiles sympathetically as he pulls out Louis’ duffel. “Okay, so I didn’t bring a paper copy of the packing list that Liam and I used, but he emailed it to me last month, so I should still have it in my phone.” He unlocks the phone and before long has the list open and is reading it to Louis as he rushes around the room gathering bundles and dumping them on his bed. Thank goodness he’d done laundry two days ago and basically everything he needs is clean and ready. 

As he’s starting to shove a stack of t-shirts into the duffel, he hears something in Harry’s recitation of the packing list that takes him aback. “A coat? Harold, it’s June. It’s like a million degrees outside; I don’t need to take a coat.”

Harry chuckles. “Gemma did a trip like this a few years ago, and she said they woke up one morning in Glacier National Park and their tent was frozen, so yeah, you’re taking a coat.”

 

*********

 

Three hours later and they’re 140 miles northwest of Raleigh, with Liam driving, Louis having won a hard-fought battle for shotgun, and Harry, Niall, and Zayn stuffed into the backseat of Liam’s Grand Cherokee. It seems that Liam has meticulously planned out their route— at least until they reached the North Carolina border— and now that they’ve passed a Virginia state line sign, he’s freaking out. Liam did, however, have the foresight to bring an atlas, so Louis is impressing them all with his amazing map-reading skills while Harry reads out directions from his phone.

“Honestly, Louis, if we listened to your directions, we’d end up in Louisiana instead of Wyoming.”

“Harold! I’m offended!” Louis peers at his map, tightening his grip as Harry makes several grabs for the atlas. “We absolutely wouldn’t end up in Louisiana. This is _clearly_ a map of _Mississippi_.” He huffs and continues his directions. “Now, Liam, up ahead of us, you’ll see a roundabout. From the map, it looks like we’ll go about three-quarters of the way around it—”

“Louis,” Liam growls, “we are on I-77. There isn’t going to be a roundabout. Will you _please_ let Harry give me the directions before you get us lost in a swamp and we have to wrestle an alligator for food?”

Louis is ready to argue with Liam, to say that he would obviously never get them lost anywhere, as he is clearly an expert map-reader, and they should bow to his superior knowledge, when Niall barks a laugh and Louis finds himself distracted. 

“Zayn, that picture is sick, dude! It looks just like them!” Louis has to crane his neck to see what Niall’s talking about. On Zayn’s sketchpad is a frighteningly realistic looking Harry, grabbing at the atlas in Louis’ hands as Liam swats at them. 

“That is really good, Zayn.” Louis squints at the picture consideringly. “I think it really captures Liam’s grandmotherly spirit. When I was younger, my maw maw always had to swat at Lottie and me when we were in the backseat. Lottie’s a pincher, you know.”

“Damnit, Louis! I am not like your maw maw! At the next exit, I’m pulling over and Niall can sit in the front seat and navigate.” Liam glowers at Louis.

Niall pipes up. “Why do I have to navigate? Harry’s been doing it the whole time and he likes to, and I like my spot in the backseat.”

“You have to navigate because if I put Harry up here, Louis will just keep flirting with him, and then Harry will flirt back, and he’ll get distracted, and we’ll end up in the swamp, Niall. In the swamp. With the alligators.”

Liam looks a little stressed, Louis notices. Maybe he should volunteer to drive; that might help. He suggests it and Liam turns red and throws his hat at Louis’ head. Louis puts it on. The sun _has_ been getting in his eyes, after all.

 

*********

 

It turns out that sitting in the backseat with Harry and Zayn has been amazing. Harry is a great cuddler, and Louis has taken two naps on his shoulder this afternoon alone. The afternoon was so wonderful, in fact, that Louis announces at supper that it’s absolutely necessary that he sit in the backseat next to Harry for the remainder of the trip. Liam laughs at him.

“If you think I’m driving this whole trip, Tommo, you have another thing coming. I’m not pulling 10 hour days so that you can snuggle up to Harry and pretend that you haven’t had a thing for him for _three years.”_

Louis scoffs. Of course he isn’t cuddling up with Harry because he has a crush on him. Louis isn’t the type of person to have _crushes._ He’s the type of person who picks up hot guys in bars, and Harry is the type of person who has long-term monogamous relationships. After all, he’s had two boyfriends, each for more than a year, since they started college, both tall and dark and broad. So regardless, Louis is absolutely not his type, and why should he be a glutton for punishment if Harry will never go for him?

Now Zayn is looking at him with concern, and he’s regretting the time, early in sophomore year, when he got plastered and cried on Zayn’s shoulder about how Harry’d just told his boyfriend that he loved him and how Louis would never have him. Zayn has a disconcerting habit of remembering everything and reminding Louis of it at the worst times. Like right now. In front of everyone. Louis’s just glad that none of the other boys can hear the conversation Louis and Zayn are having with their eyes, or they’d think he was absolutely pathetic. 

“ _Fine_ , Liam. I don’t mind driving, as long as you don’t mind sitting with Niall and Zayn. Zayn snores, you know. Loudly. He drools, too. Just to warn you.”

Interestingly, over the next few days, each time it’s been Zayn’s turn to drive, they find that he’s asleep. He’s taken to Louis’ snoring story beautifully. Louis and Zayn have been roommates since they were freshman, and Zayn has never snored. This is proving to be an amazing way to get out of driving, and Louis is thinking of taking up snoring himself. He wonders if Harry considers it a turn-off.

 

*********

 

The morning of the third day, they’re pulling into the campground parking lot at Badlands National Park when Zayn jolts awake, jarring Harry’s hand from the spot where it’s curled in Louis’ hair. Harry makes a drowsy sound of protest and returns to gently rubbing Louis’ head. 

In the past few days, since Liam’s comment about Louis having a crush, Harry’s been much more demonstrative, taking opportunities to touch Louis— snuggle with him in the car, squeeze his hand at supper, stumble into drunken hugs at the bar— and it’s been both amazing and frustrating. Louis isn’t sure what Harry’s thinking, but the other boys keep looking at them and smirking at each other, and Louis can’t help but be afraid that they’re making fun of him, or that Harry’s making fun of him, and he hasn’t let himself relax into the touches fully. He wants to, but there’s that nagging doubt in the back of his mind that holds him back.

When he looks up again, Liam and Niall are jogging back from having reserved their campsite, and Liam is directing them all as to how to set up camp. Louis takes the opportunity to kick all the debris off the campsite, then parks himself in a camp chair to call directions at Harry, Liam, and Niall. Harry manages to wrap himself fully in the tent, doing a kind of ballerina twirl to extract himself and get the tent to the ground. He’s cut the sleeves off his flannel shirt, and his muscles are flexing under his tattoos, and Louis could watch him all day. 

He calls out for them to pick up the tent and move it about six inches to the left, so that he can watch Harry’s muscles ripple again as he moves, when Harry looks up at him. He grins at Louis, dimple appearing in his cheek for a moment, and Louis feels his heart flutter. And well, if this trip was going to prove to Louis that he could be around Harry without getting truly attached, it’s sure doing a piss-poor job of it.

When the tents are up and sleeping bags and gear tossed inside, Harry suggests a hike. He’s been talking about it for days, made sure his phone was charged on the ride up this morning so he could capture the scenery, which Gemma had promised him was amazing.

“Alright, Harold, you pick the trail and we’ll follow your lead.”

For three-tenths of a mile, the hike goes perfectly, and then Louis screws it all up. It’s just that Harry had picked the Notch Trail, which skirts the edge of a cliff and requires them to climb a seventy-foot wood and wire ladder, and Louis thought it would be funny to shake the ladder as Zayn climbed it. 

Zayn scrambles down, cursing all the while. “What the fucking fuck, Louis?” 

The grin slides off Louis’ face as Zayn’s rant continues. “What the hell were you thinking, dude? You fucking know I don’t like heights!”

Zayn is pacing back and forth, and this is as angry as Louis has ever seen him, angrier even than the time that Louis backed Zayn’s car into a pole in the parking lot of their freshman dorm. 

He’s still spitting when Niall convinces him to head back to the campsite, blaming his bad knee for being unable to continue the hike. Louis calls out an apology as they walk away, and Zayn doesn’t respond. 

With only Liam, Harry, and Louis left, the hike takes on a quieter tone, the earlier laughing and joking over. They pick their way over the [rocky terrain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83eU3-MiXrg) until they reach the overlook. Liam goes off to explore, and Harry takes pictures like no one’s ever seen the Badlands before and it’ll go away if he doesn’t capture it all. Louis sits on the ground, maybe a little further from the edge than he would have earlier today. After a while, Harry wanders over to join him.

They sit in silence for a few minutes until Harry speaks up. “That was really shitty, Louis.” He isn’t looking at Louis, and Louis can barely breathe for the lump in his throat. When he sees that Louis isn’t answering, he continues. “You know Zayn’s afraid of heights, even around the stairs on campus, and it was fucking shitty of you to mess around like that when you knew it would freak him out.”

Louis clears his throat. His cheeks are burning and his eyes are threatening to well over, but he can’t get the words out. He swallows and tries again. “I mean, at least he didn’t end up on the part of the hike that we just did, around those cliffs. He’d have had a panic attack.”

Harry sits for a moment, still, and Louis isn’t sure he’s going to answer. He opens his mouth to say more, try to dig himself out of this hole, when Harry bursts into speech. “Louis, I swear to God, you always do this. Can’t take things seriously, so you make a big joke out of it all, even when the other person’s trying to be serious.”

Louis wraps his arms around his legs, resting his chin on his knees. “I fucked up, Harry. Like, I thought he’d laugh, and I didn’t even think about how it was Zayn and not you or Niall or Liam.” He groans. “This sucks.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“What?”

Harry bumps him in the shoulder, gives him a brief grin. “Zayn. He’ll get over it. Just apologize, promise not to be a dick ever again, and he’ll forgive you.”

Louis wants to believe him, but he’s seen Zayn hold a grudge. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.” Harry bumps him again, then stands, brushes his jeans off, and offers Louis a hand. 

Once they’re both on their feet, Harry whistles, and about thirty seconds later, Liam comes trotting around a rock formation. Louis realizes that Harry must have sent Liam off so they could talk in private. He’s filled with an overwhelming gratitude for his friends, and how they forgive him when he acts stupid. Now he just has to make it up to Zayn.

*********

 

 

When they get back to camp, Zayn’s in a better mood, Niall having dragged the cooler out of the car. A small pile of beer cans litter the table. When Louis apologizes, Zayn waves him off. “I should have known better than to climb up with you right in front of me, Louis.” He gestures at the spot across from him, and Louis sits.

“So,” he says, once Louis’s settled, “you and Harry.”

“There’s nothing going on with us!” Louis cries, but the words ring false even to him. 

Zayn smiles. “Louis, we’ve been friends since we were in eighth grade, and you’ve been in love with Harry since freshman year.” 

He pauses, waiting for Louis to respond. When he doesn’t, Zayn continues speaking. “You’re in love with Harry, and I haven’t known him as long as I’ve known you, but I know that he feels the same way. So now you have to tell him.”

“How am I going to tell him, though?”

Louis is thanking his lucky stars that he’s known Zayn for so long, that Zayn knew exactly what Louis would ask. He pulls a print out of a webpage from his pocket and slides it across the table to Louis.

“[Night Sky Program](https://www.flickr.com/photos/badlandsnationalpark/sets/72157627253764089/)?”

“Yeah, brilliant stars, like gorgeous. Harry will think it’s amazing, he’ll be fucked for anyone else.”

“Zayn.”

“Lou.”

“Zayn, you’re a genius! This is amazing, this is perfect! Harry loves romantic shit, he’ll be all over this.” 

“All over you, you mean.”

“Of course I mean all over me. Stop smirking, you pervert.” Zayn tones down the smile, but only just, and Louis’s forced to sock him in the arm.

 

*********

 

They’ve just finished rolling around in the dirt when the other three return from some famous drugstore Niall had insisted on visiting, promising that the sheer number of billboards they’d passed couldn’t be lying to them about its amazingness.

Harry can’t stop going on about what they’d missed, and shows them roughly 50 pictures of everything he’d seen there- the Wall Drug Dinosaur, the Wall Drug Jackalope, the Wall Drug animatronic animal show- when he flips to a photo of Niall, seemingly frozen, with a look of agony on his face.

“And Niall got a full body brain freeze! We thought he was having a seizure!” Harry seems far too delighted by this turn of events; he’s so excited, in fact, that he isn’t able to get the story out, and Liam has to take over.

“So you remember how we kept seeing billboards that said, ‘Wall Drug: Free Ice Water?’” 

Louis and Zayn nod.

“And remember how we laughed because it wasn’t that big a deal, because water’s free everywhere?”

They nod again.

“Well, when we got there, there were these girls. I mean, they were _so_ hot.” Liam sighs. “So we were talking to them, and Niall brought up the free ice water, and he said that he could drink like ten glasses in under thirty seconds.”

Louis notices that Niall is being awfully quiet for hearing a story that revolves so much around him. He glances over at him and Liam gives the barest shake of his head, so Louis motions for Liam to continue.

“We didn’t think he’d actually try it, but there was this one girl, this blonde girl named Ellie, and she thought it was hilarious, so she ordered all these cups of water and had them all lined up on the counter like shots. She said she’d go out with him tonight if he did all ten, and so he hands me his phone and tells me to time him and he just starts downing them.”

Liam peeks over at Niall, sees that he isn’t going to add anything, and plunges on. “He gets to the ninth cup, and it’s only been twenty seconds, and so Harry and I are cheering and hollering, and then he just…stops. Like the cup was halfway to his mouth, and his eyes were just blank and it was so creepy.”

“And _then,_ ” Harry announces, “after like a fucking minute, he snaps out of it, chugs that cup, grabs the next one, chugs it, slams it on the counter, says, ‘I’ll see you tonight,’ to Ellie, and walks out like nothing had happened. Like, we literally thought he was dead, and then he makes a date and walks out like nothing! And we asked him in the car, and he doesn’t remember _anything_.” 

“Wait, wait,” Louis says, “let me get this straight. You thought Niall was dead, so you did the following things: you watched him stand in a catatonic brain freeze state for a full minute, you laughed at him, you took pictures for future embarrassment purposes, and then you let him wander out into the desert on his own?”

“Yup!” says Harry proudly. “And then we had donuts and coffee. It was exactly what you would have done, Louis!” 

“Not quite, Harold. I would have also tied his shoelaces together and drawn a penis on his face, but you’re getting there. In a few years, you’ll really have something to be proud of.”

Harry beams.

 

*********

 

It turns out that far from being put off by Niall’s brain freeze, Ellie was impressed, and she’d passed her number on to him through Liam, so he and Niall were going to head back up to Wall to meet up with her and her friends. At the last minute, Zayn decides to go along, claiming he wants to meet the girl who killed Niall, however temporarily. As he leaves, he hisses, “Stars!” at Louis, then scampers into the Jeep.

So now Louis is alone with Harry. And yes, they may have been friends for 3 years, but now that Zayn’s said he thinks Harry returns Louis’ feelings, Louis finds he doesn’t know what to say. 

They’ve been sitting around in the camp chairs for five minutes when both of them begin to speak. 

“I was thinking-”

“Do you want to-”

Louis pauses for Harry to continue, but Harry gestures him on.

“I was thinking, I’ve heard that the stars are beautiful out here at night.” He takes out the papers Zayn had given him and passes them to Harry. “Do you want to go out to the program? It’s Friday night, so the ranger will be talking about the constellations, and we can look through the telescopes, and you can Instagram it.”

Louis knows he’s rushing, knows that he seems overeager, but Harry just breathes out, wide-eyed, and nods. “That would be amazing, Louis. We can take blankets and lay out under the stars and cuddle.”

And—oh. There it is, written on Harry’s face. A kind of cautious hope, like maybe he and Louis are figuring out the same things at the same time. All of a sudden, all of the fears that Louis had about telling Harry his feelings melt away. They’ll have to talk about this, eventually, but for tonight, just laying under the stars, on the same page, will be enough.

 

 

 

**Coda**

_Somewhere on I-40 along the Tennessee-North Carolina border_

“See, Louis? I told you you’d need the coat.” Harry nuzzles the hair at the nape of Louis’ neck.

“My brilliant boyfriend—turns out you’re always right.” Louis almost feels ridiculous, being this sappy, _almost_ , but he’s so deliriously happy that he can’t quite muster it up.

“For the last time,” Zayn growls— Louis hadn’t even known he was awake— “for the last time, if you hadn’t decided to sleep in the nude, outside the tent, _under your sleeping bags_ , which the coyotes then stole, you wouldn’t have needed the coats. I’m sorry I ever put the stupid star paper into your stupid, sappy hands, Lou, so will you two please just let me sleep?”

Zayn pulls his jacket back over his face, but just before it covers his mouth, Louis sees a ghost of a smile. He turns to Harry and kisses him on the corner of the mouth. “I’m not sorry, Harold. Not one little bit.”

“Me neither, Lou. Me neither.”

**Author's Note:**

> Pixies—I hope you like it! I started out with a whole road trip planned, but then started thinking how I always remember bits and pieces of my trips more than the overall experience, so I focused on the part I thought H+L would most remember about the trip. But I have tons more hijinks planned out and would be happy to add to it if you wanted!


End file.
